Friday, October 27, 2006

You become naked

Had it up to here, not just with Radiohead, but with the two albums generally held to be the main influences on OK Computer, namely Bitches Brew by Miles Davis and The Beatles by The Beatles (aka 'The White Album', although if you need me to tell you that, you probably won't be very interested in the rest of the post).

Now, the Miles thing I've never really got. I've always preferred Dizzy Gillespie and Chet Baker as trumpeters; and Bitches Brew is when he just degenerated into wanky jazz-rock-funk bollocks, although John McLaughlin's guitar playing has its moments. But the White Album has been in my all-time Top 10 for years, so I hope I haven't yet exhausted its wonky charms.

I think the problem is that it's so big and diverse and all over the shop that it just gets overwhelming, like a hyperactive St Bernard puppy. Which leads us neatly to today's game: not an original one by any means, but one that's endlessly diverting (for slightly damaged people staring into the abyss of middle age, at least). George Martin has said on more than one occasion that The Beatles would have made a fantastic single album. Your mission, if you accept it, is to trim down the 30-track expanse of vinyl into a neat, 7-a-side effort. Keep in mind the political necessities of the era (rough balance between Lennon and McCartney, and something to keep Harrison happy). Smartarse points will be deducted for including 'Happy Birthday, Mike Love' and similar Rishikesh offcuts. (That's you I'm talking to, Swipe.)

To get the ball rolling, here's my effort:

Side oneWhy Don't We Do It In The Road?Glass OnionI WillWhile My Guitar Gently WeepsI'm So TiredBack In The USSRHappiness Is A Warm Gun

And two postscripts: CiF piece on the Surrealist subtext of Kylie Minogue's underwear, although somebody's added a standfirst that gives away the punchline, thank you very much; and the news that next month Bangkok will be hosting a conference called Slag in Asia.

23 comments:

No, I just couldn't reduce the White Album to two sides. It's the scope of the thing and the frivolous bits that are the icing on the cake. Well, I said as much in a long, plodding, boring comment on the Art Of Noise blog in their "Beatles - for or against?" post. I couldn't get rid of any of it ... even Ringo singing Good Night.

In fact I seem to have sent a lot of long, plodding, boring comments about music in the past few days. Sorry to anyone who has read them.

I'm with Betty. It is what it is. A fragment of time....or several fragments bundled together. An attempt to encapsulate a messy period in their brief career (and get rid of a few bits of tape they had lying around). Nothing can be done with it now.

never was a big fan of that album, even less now that i had to play 'bungalow bill' for my five-year old every day for a month. i would probably at this point reduce it to seven songs: a few paul's (ob-la-di, back in the u.s.s.r, birthday), a few john's (julia, dear prudence, happiness is a warm gun), and the george ...

Just a drive by commenter here who hasn't heard the White Album in years.

Still, Bitches Brew is by far the best electric jazz album of the time. Although as much as I would like to link two of my favorites, I don't particularly link Radiohead and Bitches Brew, other than both having a rampant creativity.

Cut the cursed 'White Album' down to a single album? Much better to trim it down to a one-sided 7" single ... keep 'Yer Blues' and dump the rest - the Beatles fatally derailed rock'n'roll with their piss-poor pastiches and self indulgences. Their legacy? 10cc and E.L.O...And don't get me started on George Harrison - a multi-millionaire moaning on about paying his taxes. A nasty piece of work. 'Why My Guitar etc., bloody etc.' is the most lachrymose excuse for a song in the history of pop music.The album is only a fat, overstuffed double because four giant egos couldn't accept that every half excuse for a song they cobbled together didn't need to be released to a grateful public and posterity.But Miles? What a genius. 'Bitches Brew' and Miles' takes on funk and rock? As Hunter S. Thompson said about Ali, he wasn't only the king in his own backyard, he was the crown prince in everyone else's.

All right, I know when I'm beaten. But if George Harrison was "a nasty piece of work" I dunno where that leaves cantankerous junkie racist misogynist Miles Davis, no matter how well he tootled his horn.

Yes, Ornette in the 60s had it all ... not that he was too shabby any other time.And Miles' dress sense ... recall a wonderful Lester Bangs piece where he remembers someone in the crowd chucking a frisbee at Miles and knocking his S&M studded choker off. Bet that pissed the old curmudgeon off.

good taste is better than bad taste, but bad taste is better than no taste

So what’s all this Cultural Snow business, then?

“The writing itself is no big thing. I mean I like writing. It’s even relaxing for me. But the content is a real zero. Pointless in fact.”“What do you mean?”“I mean, for instance, you do the rounds of fifteen restaurants in one day, you eat one bite of each dish and leave the rest untouched. You think that makes sense?”“But you couldn’t very well eat everything, could you?”“Of course not. I’d drop dead in three days if I did. And everyone would think I was an idiot. I’d get no sympathy whatsoever.”“So what choice have you got?” she said.“I don't know. The way I see it, it’s like shoveling snow. You do it because somebody’s got to, not because it's fun.”“Shoveling snow, huh?” she mused.“Well, you know, cultural snow,” I said.—from Dance Dance Dance, by Haruki Murakami (translated by Alfred Birnbaum)